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CITY LANDSCAPES from page 38

mits his budget to the city manager, the mayor, or a commission. If it goes to a commission, then the commission sends the budget to the city manager or mayor. The auditor meets with the mayor or city man-ager before the landscape budget is added to the city budget. The city budget is then presented to city council for review and approval.

Sixty percent felt they could convince the public further improvement was needed.

The city council may also have a budget committee to review each department budget. Finally, the council must approve the budget.

A number of the survey respon-dents mentioned the importance of a close relationship with the mayor or city manager. The desires of the public are voiced through council. If a department head wants to ob-tain major new funding, he must work closely with the voters, the council members and the mayor.

The majority of the respondents said they did not promote land-scape programs to the public, but those who did had a much better feeling about public support of future programs. Those that make the time get results.

One city director of landscape management works with local newspapers, extension agents, and local schools to generate publicity. Another involves the local Cham-ber of Commerce in a city beautifi-cation program. A third works with the local garden club on a yard of the month award and a yearly clean-up campaign. A fourth lets citizens "adopt a park" where citi-zens pitch in to help maintain park areas and plant flowers and trees.

If the public associates with the appearance of the community then financial support results, one city manager commented. The public expects results from their support, a noticeable improvement in the appearance of public landscapes. That doesn't mean expensive, high maintenance areas, but simple, attractive, and neat landscapes

along the same lines a taxpayer would have on his own property. His yard then extends into the rest of the community and his interest in his city grows.

We found no consistent pattern of budget planning or buying. The only semblance of a pattern was planning is heaviest in February and March, May and June, and September and October. This spring, summer, fall planning must precede city budget planning. One respondent begins planning in February for a budget which doesn't reach the city council until May nor get approved until June.

Buying for seed, chemicals and equipment appears heaviest in February through April. A second period of equipment buying takes place in September through No-vember, perhaps an effort to re-place worn out equipment before entering a new budget period.

Nearly 75 percent of those re-sponding specify products. One public works director uses a stand-ards book to plan his work and se-lect types of material. The book was prepared by a consulting engi-neer and covers all city functions from lawn seeding to sidewalk construction. A separate survey to military landscape managers showed a greater reliance upon standards by the military than most city landscape managers.

Public agencies have the reputa-tion of requiring bids for nearly everything. We found that pur-chase orders without bids can be used if the amount of purchase is below a specified figure, ranging from $250 to $2,500 among re-spondents. Generally there are three limits: for purchases under $250 a purchase order signed by the department director is needed; for purchases from $250 to $1,000, two bids may be required and the auditor or city manager must sign the purchase order; for purchases over $1,000, bids will probably be required and the city council must approve. Any landscape project of decent size will require purchase orders. Equipment purchases al-most certainly come under review by city council or a park board.

City and park landscape manag-ers depend a great deal on exten-sion agents, local university and

vocational school instructors, the supplier's salesman, and maga-zines for making buying decisions. Less than five percent mentioned getting advise from a landscape architect or consultant.

According to the survey the pri-mary functions of a public land-scape manager are park mainte-nance, care of landscapes around public buildings, and management of city trees. Very few of the re-spondents did school landscape maintenance. Secondary responsi-bilities listed were roadside main-tenance, snow removal, and care of street trees. Care of public building landscapes comes after park main-tenance, with tree care a close third. More than 80 percent are re-sponsible for athletic fields. Addi-tional duties included care of utili-ty rights-of-way, cemeteries, public golf courses, city streets, and build-ing interiors.

Ninety percent reported most equipment maintenance was han-dled by city repair crews, who then work with local suppliers for parts.

Less than half of the respondents contract out landscape jobs to local landscape contractors. Those that do contract out mainly plant instal-lation, tree trimming, and spraying.

A third of the public landscape managers felt major renovation and improvement was needed. Another third felt their landscape was passable. Another third felt they had their landscapes in good shape. But, 60 percent felt they could convince the public further improvement was needed.

More than half the respondents felt a college degree in horticulture or business is needed to perform the duties of public landscape manager.

Respondents anticipate land-scape staff to stay the same. Only 15 percent expect staff size to de-crease. Almost a fourth expect staff size to increase.

Overall, the future for public landscape management is compar-atively good. The dominance of the park manager, pride in community appearance, recognition of horti-cultural expertise, and a fairly pos-itive attitude about selling im-provements to the public give the city, county, state, and park manag-er an edge over schools and the pri-

vate sector. A slight resistance to contracting out landscape work may be bad for the landscape con-tractor but good for the public landscape manager.

Mi l i t a r y The title engineer is most com-

mon to our respondents in charge of military landscapes. In most cases the landscape budget is part of the base budget controlled by the base commander, who tops a chain of command. Many areas, excluding golf courses, fall under uniform guidelines meant to pro-vide a practical and organized en-vironment for military training.

Most of the respondents were ci-vilian employees of the military. Efficiency, not creativity, is the purpose of the landscape. Acreage is very large and budgets fairly small per acre. The typical re-spondent was responsible for 1,200 acres and had a materials and sup-ply budget of less than $15,000.

Outside contractors were used by less than 20 percent of the mili-tary landscape managers. Plant in-stallation and tree care were again the main uses of outside contrac-tors.

Military managers feel, to a man, that the landscape they manage is satisfactory for its purpose, and that improvement would be hard to justify. Budget planning was most common in January, July and Au-gust. Purchasing was most common January through March with a sec-ond phase of equipment buying in August.

The primary responsibilities of military landscape managers are building and roadside mainte-nance. Street care and airport maintenance are also primary tasks. Secondary tasks are snow removal and utility right-of-way maintenance.

M a t e r i a l s P u r c h a s e d The government and military

landscape managers in the survey had no more equipment than a mid-sized landscape contractor, with the exception of trucks and tractors. They had an average of 7.5 small push mowers and 3.5 large mowers, 3 line trimmers, 1 spray rig, 1.5 spreaders, and 3 chain saws.

About half had a chipper, trencher, bucket lift truck, and turf aerifier. Fifteen percent had a soil shred-der.

Government managers are big truck buyers. They averaged 3.5 dump trucks and 4.8 pickup trucks. A fourth of the respondents re-ported having an average of 3 truckster-type vehicles. They also had an average of 3 tractors each.

Fertilizers and turf herbicides

are purchased by 90 percent or more of the public landscape man-agers. Two thirds use nonselective herbicides for trimming and other types of weed control. Tree insec-ticides are purchased by 56 percent of the group, while 40 percent pur-chase turf insecticides. Fungicides are also bought by 40 percent. Wetting agents and growth regula-tors are purchased by 17 percent of the respondents. WTT

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LA RENOVATES WITH NATIVES TO SLASH WATER AND LABOR COSTS

LA's Optimum Energy House not only has a native vegetation landscape, but the parking lot is partially turf blocks to reduce the impact of pavement.

As senior park maintenance super-visor for the Los Angeles Depart-ment of Water and Power, Sanders Barnett has done his best to halt the waste and along the way has be-come the model of efficient munic-ipal landscape management. His emphasis on the use of native vege-tation has significantly reduced the county's maintenance costs and created beautiful natural land-scapes.

The keynote of Barnett's philoso-phy is simplicity. "I stress simplici-ty because its very hard to work with a complicated design," said Barnett. "It's more economical to work simpler; you're working with fewer elements." He approaches a landscape as a lesson in problem-solving. The simpler you solve the problem, the prettier it is going to look. Even more importantly. Bar-nett believes, is to solve the cause of your problems rather than cam-ouflaging them with lush foliage. "I don't care if you spend a million dollars on a landscape, if you don't solve the basic problem it's not going to work," said Barnett.

While many municipalities have been under the gun to cut costs, few have had their fiscal problems trumpeted in the media the way California has. The city of Los An-geles is very dollar conscious and the individual departments have a

At one power plant Barnett cut water con-sumption to 200 gallons per week from 30,000. vested interest in being economi-cal. A Hollywood producer might be able to stock his garden with thirsty azaleas, rhododendrons and begonias because he has money to burn. Justifying the use of taxpayer's money is another story. The areas that are maintained by the Department of Water and Pow-

er (power plants, reservoirs, power lines) are often visible from many high-income areas. Therefore they must be both functional and ap-pealing. In this respect, the contri-bution of Sanders Barnett to the Los Angeles landscape has been the use of native plants. "We have to think in terms of low water con-sumption plants," said Barnett, "and that brings us back to our na-tive vegetation. Sure, we could use up a lot of water and artificially grow lush tropical gardens. But if you look at our native plants, you will see that they are just as pretty as many of the imports." Interest-ingly enough, the plants consid-ered exotic in California are na-tives in Australia and South Africa.

The beauty and esthetics of a landscape are important to Barnett, even in planning areas that serve functional purposes (such as ero-sion control). Barnett told Weeds Trees & Turf of how plant-con-scious the country has become. He pointed out how people now ex-pect the beauty that plants add to

an environment, particularly in re-sort areas and public places.

The Harbor Steam Plant was typical of many areas that were attractive and maintainable when resources were plentiful. The land-scape was very tropical and re-quired high maintenance. Barnett removed the tropical plants except for the palms because of their age and height. As a replacement he used a perennial mix of gazanias and three types of ground covers. Water usage was cut and the land-scape is now in bloom all year round due to the variety of the plants. Barnett added a prostrate form of ceanothus to act as an anchor plant. The design is simple, serene and inexpensive. Barnett noted that the landscape was suffering from too much water. It used to be irrigated with $4,000 worth of sprinklers which now can be used infrequently.

At the DWP's Optimum Energy House Barnett planted a mixture of foliage that, like the Harbor Steam

Continued on page 46

OCTOBER 1982/WEEDS TREES & TURF 45

LA RENOVATES from page 45

Plant, is in bloom year-round. The drought-resistant plants are so hardy that no irrigation system is required. The water needed is sup-plied on a "as needed" basis with a hose. Prominent in the landscape is ornamental strawberry (fragari chiloensis) ground cover and a wildflowermix.

While Barnett has done wonders to streamline plant maintenance at the DWP, some of his practices go uncopied by sister agencies in Los Angeles. The sound barriers along the highway system (maintained by the Department of Transportation) are still basically tropical plants that need a lot of water and mainte-nance. Barnett compares La's rights of way with those of north-ern California and finds his own city lacking. "In northern Califor-nia they have been working with natives for about seven years, incorporating them into the land-scape," said Barnett. "They plant them in the fall before the rains and let them get acclimated to the natural conditions under which they grow." Much of Southern California is irrigated by sprinkler

systems. Barnett noted that his up-state neighbors are learning from LA's mistakes. "Why give alot of life support and maintenance to a plant that doesn't want to live there in the first place," he added. "Take the plant who originally lived there, and plant him there."

Along rights of way particular at-tention has been paid to the pollu-tion resistance of the plants used.

Barnett is a strong advocate of pretesting native plants before installation.

Los Angeles has had good results with some of Australian imports. Barnett noted that generally plants with hard, waxy surfaces thrived better than those with fuzzy sur-faces. The fuzzy plants trap tre-mendous amounts of dust and dirt and clog its stomata.

In creating a landscape, be it 20 miles of rights of way or a power

station, Barnett stresses planning over any other consideration. He is a strong advocate of pretesting to find out what plants are suitable for that particular area. These tests include soil testing and planting of frost-susceptible plants.

"In the planning stages you can erase your mistakes with an eras-er," said Barnett. "Once its planted, you need a shovel." He noted that one well-known landscape archi-tect, Thomas Church, has been very successful with very few plants. Church has two full-time horticulturists on his staff. He plans a landscape and notes the shapes and colors of the foliage that he wants. His horticulturists then advise him which plants both meet his specs and will flourish in that area. In planning a landscape Church thinks of the ultimate color, not only what it will look like right after installation.

When working on an existing landscape Barnett always exam-ines the plants already there. He notes which ones are thriving and what families they come from. In

Continued on page 48

LA Water and Power has massive task The use of native vegetation by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has an enor-mous impact on the landscape due to the number of areas DWP maintains. The department is re-sponsible for 352 water and power facilities and will be adding six more. That translates into close to 11 million sq. ft. of lawn areas, 11,856 trees and over 75,000 shrubs.

According to Principal Park Supervisor Alex Costa, that is not the entire picture. DWP maintains 12 transportation rights of way (ranging from 2-12 miles each); 440,000 sq. ft. of sidewalks (that are maintained with backpack blowers and brooms due to the water short-age); 1.3 million sq. ft. of black-top; 3.8 million sq. ft. of rock mat (areas that must be kept weed-free); and over 36 million sq. ft. of weed control areas (those

with no formal landscaping) that are maintained on a semi annual or bimonthly basis. "We are one of the few entities that purposely maintains weeds," said Costa. "They hold down dust, which is a big problem for our energy equipment. The weeds are now being converted to native vege-tation."

To handle the massive job of maintaining DWP's landscaping Costa has a staff of 113. Beneath Costa are two senior park super-visors, six area foremen, six area senior gardeners, one vector control specialist (who handles chemical operations), six pest control operators (licensed by the state), one propagation su-pervisor, and gardeners. The department is responsible for most of its own design work and that is generated in-house.

The department's budgeting is handled by a two-tiered system.

Manpower, equipment, equip-ment maintenance and materi-als are budgeted and funded through municipal channels. A second level of budgeting is re-quired for "on-demand work." Special projects not in the annu-al budget are funded separately. To purchase equipment, Costa and his staff work up a list of specifications and submit them to the city's purchasing agent who does the actual buying. Maintenance of equipment is handled by DWP's Shop Serv-ice, who has a staff of 15 doing small equipment repair.

For the first time Costa's office is contemplating contracting work out. "The city wants us to reduce our staff, so we're study-ing the cost-effectiveness of doing the work ourselves or con-tracting it out," said Costa. WTT

46 WEEDS TREES & TURF/OCTOBER 1982

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LA RENOVATES from page 46

B a r n e t t (center) with two crew chiefs prior to his retirement.

his contact with landscapers, Bar-nett advises them to steer their cli-ents away from plants that have marginal chance of survival or short blooming seasons. He finds many instances where people in mountainous regions want to plant azaleas. They look good in the summer but die after the first frost. Although many Southern Califor-nia residents can afford to foot the bill of replacing the plants, to Barnett that is not the point. "If something is planted where it won't flourish, it is a waste of plant life, water and money," said Bar-nett. "Everybody suffers, because plants and natural resources are being wasted."

Another facet of proper planning is to know the proper moisture re-quirement of your plants. "We kill more plants with the water hose than anything else," asserted Bar-nett, "in both tropical and arid en-vironments." He noted that a lot of the Australian and New Zealand imports currently being used suf-fer from "overculture"—too much water. One of the reasons for the overuse of water, according to Barnett, is that man can't match the conditions of nature when he irri-gates. Typically when it rains it is overcast and humid, while an irri-gation system waters according to a schedule (during which it is often sunny and dry). The natural condi-tion lends itself to a much more efficient use of water.

In many cities, such as Los

Angeles, water allocation is not a matter of money but of priorities. Those who waste it will not be able to get it when the water shortage hits (and in many areas it will) re-gardless of their income. Many of Dpw's power stations are being relandscaped with native plants to cut water use. Just as the Optimum Energy House is a prime example of native vegetation for the con-sumer, many government land-scape managers could pick up some hints from Barnett's treat-ment of the Sylmar Converter power plant. The ground cover is similar to the Optimum Energy House's, largely ornamental straw-berry with red berries and white blossoms. To minimize the weeds, Barnett laid down a four mil thick black polyethylene tarpaulin to cover the soil. He then went over it with an aerifier and punched holes to allow water to seep in. "The tarp cuts sunlight but retains water," said Barnett. "We cut our weeds by 95% and instead of using up to 30,000 gallons of water per week, we use as little as 200 gallons." He added that once the ground cover is established (6-12 months), there is very little maintenance. At Syl-mar, volcanic cinders are used as a mulch. Barnett pointed out they are very effective retaining water re-gardless of the heat.

Beautifying a power station, with conservation in mind, is no small feat. Yet Barnett has gone even one step further and illustrated how

functional foliage can be. The gen-erators at the plant have to be kept very clean to work efficiently. Trees were planted in front of the fences bordering the generators and serve the dual purpose of obscuring the ugly generators from view and also trapping dust to cut down on generator maintenance. Due to the generators' need for air only 60% of the fence could be cov-ered. The irrigation for the station is a drip system. Two systems have been set up—one for the ground cover and one for the trees and shrubs. Barnett's reasoning is that they have different requirements, so it would be a waste to water the whole station when only the shrubs needed water.

One innovation that has com-mercial potential for many land-scapers is the carport at the Opti-mum Energy House. The parking lot at OEH is very unparking lot-looking because it is grass and not paved concrete or asphalt. Con-crete units that consist of blocks set two inches apart are set on a sand base. One and one-half inch of top soil is added and then grass is planted. The effect is a green and white checkerboard parking lot. The cars literally mow the grass, but because the plant is set below the surface the plant survives. Barnett noted it is also tremendous-ly cooler than asphalt, not a small benefit in Southern California.

A point often brought against the use of native vegetation is its un-controllability. It doesn't necessar-ily bloom right on secheule. Bar-nett believes this is something we will all have to adjust to in the future because will simply won't have the resources to maintain tropical vegetation. Annuals and mediterranean imports will also fall by the wayside as the water flow is turned down to a trickle. Barnett told WTT that we should be opting for year-round foliage color, not bloom color. "I know that if some of my plants don't come up one year, they will the next and eventually the landscape will be just as I planned it, said Barnett. As resources tighten, that's a philosophy many people will be embracing. W T T

YOUR GRASS WILL BE GREENER

Attend PLCAA's 3rd Annual Convention and Trade Show November 16-18, 1982

Indiana Convention • Exposition Center Indianapolis, Indiana

Early Bird Registration/Reception Be present Monday evening, November 15, at the Early Bird Registration/Reception and theme party. Socialize with your peers, renewing old acquaintances and making new ones. Here is an opportunity to complete your registration, avoid those long lines on Tuesday morning and be on time for the opening.

Convention Program In response to last year's attendees evaluations the proaram has been expanded to three days and will offer repeat workshops. Topics will include M o t i v a t i o n ; G o v e r n m e n t Regu la -t i o n s ; M a n a g e m e n t a n d Stress; Lega l Issues; C l ien t R e l a t i o n s and a special Pane l P r e s e n t a t i o n on " H o t I s s u e s . "

Keynoter Keynoting the convention this year will be Earl L. Butz, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and Dean Emeritus of Agriculture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Dr. Butz will address the subject of the value of the small business entrepreneur in the American economic system under the title, "Populism, Politics, and Progress."

Trade Show View the latest developments of products and services and have your questions answered by exhibitors in the attractive Conven-tion Exposition Center conveniently located to hotels and downtown. Exhibit hours have been extended into the afternoon of the final day to provide more visitation time by registrants. Many new exhibitors representing a wide diversity of product lines already are contracted for PLCAA '82.

Send to: Professional Lawn Care Association of America 435 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1717 Chicago, IL 6061 1 312 /644-0828

I'm interested in attending PLCAA's Third Annual Convention

TAMPA TRIES COMPUTER TO INCREASE EFFICIENCY

BY SETTING PRIORITIES

Each crew was setting its own priorities with hap-hazard results until the computer began schedul-ing based upon system-wide needs.

government, Ferlita had no trouble picking up the extra crews to main-tain the new property, but he was without the management structure to run such a large staff over the 1400 acres cared for by the city.

As a result, crews with minimal supervision were operating from an inconsistent system of work orders. Priorities for jobs were often being set on a day to day basis by the crews themselves. The end product was a haphazard mainte-nance job. Vacant areas needing minimal maintenance were receiv-ing more man hours than necessary while highly visible, intensely landscaped parks were inade-quately kept up.

Ferlita and the city recognized the problem and brought in a man-

A r b o r in downtown Tampa invites public use of parks.

Computers are a fact of life now and learning to use them is fast be-coming a necessity for people in all occupations. The Municipal Parks Department of Tampa, FL is fol-lowing the trend. But the efficiency and information control to be gained from putting a Parks De-partment on-line is not without

problems as Parks superintendent Ross Ferlita explained.

A year ago, the Tampa Parks op-eration was out of control. Its re-sponsibilities had increased many times in a short period, as lands that had been maintained by other city departments were turned over to Parks. In a financially stable city

agement consulting firm who or-ganized the present system. The firm first had to assess the mainte-nance needs of the parks and the works capabilities of the crews. Data would then be correlated in the creation of a program to pro-vide the most efficient use of the department's resources.

The first task in the project was to determine exactly how much could be accomplished by the manpower available to the depart-ment. There was no labor shortage with over 200 on staff. But the de-mise of CETA had taken away a large surplus of workers the de-partment was accustomed to hav-ing, requiring more careful use of those remaining. "We did time and

Continued on page 52